U.S. Coast Guard Awards Contract for Ice Rescue Boats
The contract includes an initial $4.9 million order for eight 25-foot boats, along with specialized transport trailers, operator training and technical data support. The contract has a three-year performance period, with the Coast Guard anticipating delivery of the first two boats in December 2026.
The boats will be stationed at five Great Lakes locations: Cleveland, Ohio; Marblehead, Ohio; the Saginaw River in Essexville, Michigan; Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan; and Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.
The SPC-IRT II boats are intended to provide cold-weather search-and-rescue capabilities on the Great Lakes’ frozen waterways. They will replace older aluminum-hulled ice rescue boats that are approaching or have reached the end of their service lives.
The Coast Guard’s boat fleet supports eight of the service’s 11 statutory missions. Those missions include drug interdiction, living marine resources, migrant interdiction, defense readiness, search and rescue, other law enforcement, aids to navigation, and ports, waterways and coastal security.
Feature photo courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard
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